6 Surprising Things Sabotaging Your Fitness Goals

You're hitting the gym every day, eating all of the salads and downing water like there’s no tomorrow - but your body shape won't budge.

So, what’s going on? Whether you want to look like a Victoria Secret’s model or be able to squat one there's several reasons you might not be reaching your goals. According to strength, conditioning and nutrition coach, William Dawson, if you’ve got a consistent plan (aren’t expecting results overnight), one of these culprits could be to blame.

You’re exercising too much

More is not always more when it comes to your training. While it can be tempting to hit the gym every single day when you’ve got your eye on the prize, you could actually be doing yourself a disservice. When you lift weights, your muscles break down — causing microscopic tears. It’s during the rest process that these muscles (as well as the body tissue, nerves and bone) grow back stronger — leading to what gym bros refer to as ‘gains.’ However, if you go back and work the exact same muscle group the next day, they won’t be able to sufficiently regenerate. You know that ‘I don’t know if I’m going to make it up the stairs’ feeling you get after leg day? Use that as a sign to skip the squats. New research from the University of Queensland shows that muscles aches are a protective mechanism that stop people from damaging themselves in the days following exercise. Generally, a good rule of thumb is to wait at least one day before training the same muscle groups.

Get up and go. Image: The Fit Foodie

You’re not eating enough protein

Those gigantic guys chugging protein shakes at your gym aren't just doing it because they like the taste, or because they think it looks cool (well, hopefully not!) If you want to gain muscle, it’s essential to consume protein within 1-2 hours of your workout. This is because of the ‘anabolic window’ where your body requires protein to rebuild the damaged muscle tissue. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a protein shake, it can be having a high protein meal once you get home.

What you eat before your sessions counts, too. Noshing on complex carbs (think oats, brown rice or sweet potatoes) will give you a slow-release of fuel for your session. Pairing it with a source of protein will also help put you on the right track for your post-workout recovery.

It’s essential to ensure you’re eating the right amount of kilojoules for your training goal, too. If you want to lose fat, you need to consume less kilojoules than you burn in a day. If you want to lay down some muscle, you need to be in a kilojoule surplus so that the body can maintain protein synthesis. Unfortunately, you can’t really do both at the same time. There are plenty of online calculators that tell you how many kilojoules you should be eating, based on what you want to achieve. While you don’t want to become too obsessed with kilojoule counting, you might find it useful to track your kilojoule intake for a week to see where you’re at.

Protein bowls. Photo: Getty

You’re substituting on sugar

You may think you’re doing the right thing by adding honey to your morning tea, instead of honey but the sticky sweet stuff could be preventing you from reaching your goals. While honey is a more ‘natural’ form of sugar, as the end of day it’s still sugar. Our bodies react to sugar and honey in pretty much the same way — with a blood-sugar spike. This causes the pancreas to create insulin, which encourages the body to store body fat. At around 270 kilojoules per teaspoon, honey is also higher in kilojoules than sugar, which has around 200. Out of the two, honey is still the preferable option — as it actually contains minerals and vitamins. But it’s worth sticking to one teaspoon per day.

Then, there’s artificial sweeteners. While these may seem like the holy grail when you’re trying to avoid sugar, they can actually contribute to weight gain. A new study from the University of Sydney shows that when you eat artificial sweeteners, it stimulates the reward centre of the brain. This can lead to increased sugar cravings and overeating. Research from the Weizmann Institute of Science also suggests that artificial sweeteners can alter the microbes in your gut linked to your metabolism, leading you to store more fat. If you must add sweetener to your java, stevia is the more natural option and has been found to have minimal effect on your blood glucose levels.

You’re going overboard with cardio

A common mistake is thinking you need to spend hours on the treadmill to drop body fat and gain muscle. But going overboard on the cardio can actually have the opposite effect. Doing long stretches of steady-state cardio (like jogging or using the elliptical) can release the body’s stress hormone, cortisol. This causes your body to cling onto fat for dear life, especially if you’re already stressed. Overdoing the cardio can also make it really difficult to gain muscle or even cause you to lose it, particularly if you’re not fuelling your body correctly.

For this reason, HIIT (high intensity interval training) should be your go-to. Think 30 seconds of all-out sprints followed by 40 seconds of recovery, repeated for 20 minutes. Research shows that this style of training not only burns fat more efficiently, but also increases the production of the human growth hormone (responsible for muscle gain) by up to 450% in the 24 hours after your workout.

Move it. Photo: Stocksy

You’re not getting enough sleep

Sleep is also an incredibly important part of the regenerative process. During REM (the deep part of your sleep cycle) your body produces more of the growth hormone, somatotropin. This is what repairs and rebuilds your muscle. If you’re not getting enough high quality shut-eye, you could be missing out on the muscle-boosting benefits. Plus, a study from The Endocrine Society shows getting just 30 minutes less sleep than you need could lead to weight gain. To help you get a decent night’s slumber, it’s a good idea to create a relaxing sleep routine and shut off all electronics at least an hour before bed.

Sleep tight. Image: Getty

Your grip is letting you down

Yes, you can lift that heavier barbell or do that extra pull-up, you might just need to get a grip. Having poor grip strength can really limit your progress in the gym, especially when it comes to upper body exercises. Your hands can be trained just like any other part of your body and a great way to do this is by regularly practicing ‘hangs’— hanging from a bar for as long as possible. Make sure you grip the weights or pull-up bar the correct way: directly in the crease of the hand, where the palm meets the fingers. This helps to stabilise the hand movement and reduce friction.

It’s also important to take good care of your hands. They go through a lot — not only in the gym, but also at this time of year when they’re exposed to the cold, wind and artificial heating. Dry hands are more likely to crack and rip, which can make training really uncomfortable. It’s essential to keep them hydrated by moisturising at least twice a week with a high-strength hand cream like Tough Hands. It’s enriched with Vitamin E, AHA’s and Urea, which are all designed to exfoliate away dryness and improve skin texture and suppleness.

Trainer Gregory Scott is on a mission to education the public on the truth of ab and core workouts. In this video he demonstrates how to get a strong core and the abs of your dreams with a few key exercises. Credit: Gregory Scott Fitness via Storyful